Kessié, who left Al-Ahli as a free agent after his spell in Saudi Arabia, has spoken with the club since May under the previous regime led by Damien Comolli, with the change in leadership only strengthening his connection to Juventus.
Nearly three months of waiting have made sense in light of just how far the Ivorian is willing to bend to get the move done: he has accepted the certainty of a two-year deal rather than the third year he had wanted, and is seriously considering a much lower signing bonus than the figure he was asking for a month ago.
He has also put Roma's interest on hold specifically to try to close a deal with the club he committed to at the start of the summer.
Juventus, for their part, are navigating a UEFA settlement agreement and are trying to shed a heavy existing salary to make room for Kessié, who would earn around €4.5m plus generous bonuses. Until recently, completing the move depended on at least one of Jonathan David or Teun Koopmeiners leaving the club, a condition that had been made clear to Kessié — who was prepared to wait until the end of the window regardless, given his free-agent status allows him to sign even after 1 September.
Both Juventus and the player want the matter settled by the weekend, and the club has chosen to push the deal through without a guarantee of first selling or loaning out one of the fringe players it is trying to move on.
Elsewhere, Giovanni Carnevali is exploring a separate opportunity on the flank to give Andrea Cambiaso periodic rest, with three names under consideration and none yet ahead of the others.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Juventus have discussed Hugo Bueno, who was relegated to the Championship with Wolverhampton, along with Emerson Palmiéri of Marseille — a player coach Luciano Spalletti already worked with at Roma — and Joakim Mæhle, now playing for Wolfsburg in Germany's second tier after a spell at Atalanta in Serie A. No decision on that front is expected before the closing hours of the window.